


Error

by thebraxiatelcollection (songofgallifrey)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/M, big finish cause angst, we love stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-13 02:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18023294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songofgallifrey/pseuds/thebraxiatelcollection
Summary: Spoilers for Gallifrey; Time War. Gallifrey. The CIA and the rest of Gallifrey presume Leela is dead or missing after her mission with The Master. Narvin refuses to be alone during times of war. He decides on the next best thing. He builds a copy of her.  Narvin/Leela.





	Error

**With thanks and dedication to my lovely Beta-reader who took the time to edit my fanfic; https://sparklingdocta.tumblr.com/**

 

**Inspired by the music video; Error by the K-Pop group Vixx.**

* * *

 

 

**COMPUTER:  RENDERING...RENDERING...52%…**

The computer loud voice pulled Narvin from his concentration and he looks up from his own computer to the nearly completed robot in front of him. The robot was propped up by a metal harness that is built into the wall, 98% completed.  She was nearly completed. 

He hasn’t even told Romana of this project. 

It is not that he doesn’t want to tell Romana. But he was afraid of what she and Rassilon and the rest of Gallifrey would do to him and her once they found out.  

He tells himself over and over again that what he was doing wasn’t unethical and in the times of war, a war that he started, how can he focus on his survival if that future doesn’t contain her? 

The robot in front of him was the exact spitting image of Leela. Right down to the colour of her blue retina and to her burning, red hair and to the leather clothing she wore. The only thing that is missing was the knife. But Narvin cannot trust a robot with a weapon, except for K9. 

**COMPUTER:  RENDERING...95%...RENDERING...**

He pulls himself away from his desk and slowly walks towards the robot. It feels like walking through treacle as he moves towards it, every step heavier than the previous one. It is like looking at a corpse. Her corpse.  

He tries not to think about that either. 

He should have fought harder to persuade Romana to not let Leela go. It had been foolish enough of them to release the Master in the first place, knowing well enough he would just take his TARDIS at the first opportunity he got and stab them right in the back. The Time War gave the Master a purpose and that was to cause as much bloodshed and pain as possible.  

But Leela wanted to go. She wanted to keep an eye on her old enemy so he let her. 

He clenches his fists at his side. 

Some reports say that Leela fell through a wormhole. Some say The Master outright killed Leela. But Narvin knew Leela better than anyone else knew her, except perhaps Romana. 

 **COMPUTER: RENDERING COMPLETED.**  

The robot moves his head, its eyes flashing a bright light as the last of the downloads complete before resuming their normal blue, staring ahead of him. 

“Leela?” Narvin breathes and he raises a hand to touch her cheeks, her skin cold under his hands. 

Leela’s eyes flicker to him, needing a moment to adjust.  

“Narvin?” She asks him, her voice sounding the exactly the same and if Narvin didn’t know any better, he would have thought it was Leela standing in her place.  “What are you doing here?” 

 **COMPUTER: ERROR CODE 374.**  

He scowls and turned away from Leela to face the computers, quickly pressing buttons. On the screen is a holographic diagram of Leela, showing a malfunction in her left arm. 

“I need to readjust your arm,” He says, walking back over to her and releasing her from the harness. “There’s a slight malfunction-” 

“The circuits have not connected properly,” Leela interrupts and blinks. “How do I know that?” 

“You are a robot with Leela’s memories,” Narvin explains as he guides her to sit on a medical bench. “I managed to download some of Leela’s memories from the Matrix.” 

Leela narrows her eyes.  “Isn’t that illegal? Only the President can access the Matrix.” 

Narvin shrugs and he gets out his sonic, using his other arm to hold her hand steady. “This is the Time War, people have done far worse things than me making...” 

“Making a robot?” Leela asks inquisitively. “That’s what I am, Narvin. I am a robot with Leela’s memories, the woman you loved.” 

Her arm thankfully comes lose at that moment so he doesn’t have to meet her stare and instead walks to the table and sits down to look at the malfunction. “Yes, I loved her.” He says, swallowing as he fiddles with some of the wires. “I loved her a great deal and I should have told her.” 

“I may be her Narvin. I may have her memories, her personality, but I am a robot. I cannot return those affections to you.”  

“I know.” 

“Then why build me?”  

Narvin looks up from her arm on his desk and to her. She doesn’t blink and doesn’t breath, but yet, it’s her (unmistakably her) He runs a hand over his stubble, a beard that he decided to grow, for what was the point of shaving if they were all going to be out on the battlefield, covered from head to toe in dirt and blood. 

“Because I need you,” He admits. “I need your strength, your guidance. Your original copy is lost or presumed dead.” 

“Have you looked for her?” 

“Yes. She was last seen with the Master and she fell somewhere through time or perhaps she didn’t fall at all and the Master stabbed her,” He shrugs. “The Master is an old enemy of the Time-Lord's and the War will only consume his twisted mind further to his plans. I tracked her back to her last mission which involved a young man who went by the name of Finnian Valentine who was found dead at the scene.” 

“I see,” Leela says,  still without any movement at all, not even a slight nod or a brush of her hair. Not even a blink, which is slowly starting to unsettle him. Another reminder that she isn’t human. Wasn’t his Leela.  

“You don’t, but it’s nice of you to try.” Narvin scowls and turns back to the arm on the table. Why is he angry? Shouldn’t this robot make him happy? Relieved, that he has a copy of Leela with him?  

He pulls at some of the wires from the broken arm on his desk, replacing them with new ones before scanning them over with his sonic screwdriver, a device he copied from the Doctor many years ago and has only recently started using it again. Who would have thought that such a small device could hold offer so many useful skills? 

The scan completes and he puts his sonic screwdriver back down on the desk. “There,” He says, lifting the arm and walking towards her. “Your arm should be as good as new.” With careful accuracy, he fixes her arm into its socket. As he does so, a few sparks flitter out but that was nothing to worry about. 

A click confirmed that her arm is was back in place. 

“Thank you,” Leela says with a small smile of her own. “Can I move?” 

“Let me get you out of the harness,” He unstraps her and he offers her his hand to help her down. Leela takes his hand as she steps forward like a newborn foal. 

“This...this feels good!” She throws her head back and laughs, clinging onto Narvin as though he is her lifeline. “I can walk! My eyesight is even better than when I tasted the Hound blood! Oh Narvin, is this what it means to feel alive?” 

“Close enough,” Narvin responds quietly. “Alive means being able to breathe. Unfortunately, not even I can grant you that.” 

Leela turns to look at him and was that pain flickering across her eyes? Narvin quickly looks away He can’t hurt her feelings. He needs to keep reminding himself of that. She is a robot, nothing more.  

“Come on savage,” He says, gently tugging at her hand. “There are a couple of things I need to-” 

Suddenly, the doors to his workshop open and a few members of the chancellery guards come in with guns ready to fire, Romana following closely behind, looking disappointed. 

“I demand to know what’s going on here!” Narvin says angrily, standing in front of Leela, his chest rising and falling quickly. “You have no right to barge in here like this without a warrant Romana!” 

“But I do have a warrant Narvin,” Romana produces a document from the inside of her robes, signed by Rassilon himself.  “Signed by the President himself.” 

“Traitor.” 

“No, you are the traitor.” She snaps, squaring her shoulders and clasping her hands in front of her. “ _You_  are the traitor, betraying Leela’s memory like this. What on Gallifrey do you think you are doing?” 

“I’m preserving her. Is that so wrong?” Narvin asks, not letting go of Leela’s hand. He feels Leela gently squeezing his hand, ready for anything that should come between them. 

“Yes. You are dishonouring Leela and her memory by doing this.” Romana says coldly, though sorrow flickers across her eyes, as though she can understand why Narvin did this. “You loved her Narvin and so did I. Fiercely. But this isn’t the way to grieve for her.” 

“The way to grieve? There is no right or wrong way to grief, Romana. How I grieve for Leela is none of your concern!” He stands closer to Leela, wishing he could just feel her breathing against his neck, hear her beat and feel everything that makes her human but all he gets in return is the cold touch of her robotic hand.“I demand you to get out. All to get out!” He grabs his sonic, and waves it in front of the guards as though it would produce an invisible shield between him and the guards. 

“Leave him alone.” Leela snaps and he can feel her tensing beside him as the fiery passion rises through her, which is one of the things he has missed the most about her. His savage.  

“Let her go Narvin,” Morix, the captain, states, ignoring Leela as he steps forward.  

“No,” Narvin backs away with Leela. “You don’t understand. She’s-” 

Morix grabs Narvin by the hand, pulling him away from Leela and he can feel himself yelling out Leela’s name, telling her to run and he can hear Leela calling out for him when Morix draws out a long, sharp needle and pierces it into the back of Leela’s neck as she struggles to break free from Morix’s grasp.  

“Ah!” Leela cries out and her eyes turn into an electronic blue, as her warning systems get corrupted by the virus Morix had implanted in her.  

“No!” Narvin cries out, struggling against the two guards that were holding him down. 

Morix sneers and looks down at his data-pad, waiting for the data to load. It bleeps, confirming Leela is, in fact, an illegal alien. “Confirmed Illegal alien, my lady,” Morix shows Romana the result.  

Leela’s eyes flash once more in warning and she freezes, collapsing slightly forward and she turns her head to Narvin, fear in her eyes. “Narvin,” She mouths, afraid and in pain. 

Enough is enough. All the rage and anger that Narvin has kept bottled up inside him for months finally unleashes and he snarls, clenching his fists and he strikes the nearest guard in the jaw and punches the other one in the ribs. 

“Narvin!” Romana cries, flabbergasted as she watches Narvin run to Leela, taking her hand and running from the room. “Narvin, come back!” 

He ignores her, ignored the stares from the other councillors as he takes Leela to the only safe place he knows. 

“Narvin, we can’t run forever,” Leela says, keeping pace beside him as they run along the corridor. “Romana will hunt us down until we are caught like primitive animals. If she doesn’t catch us, then Rassilon will and that will be no happy ending either. You know that.” 

“I know,” Narvin says through clenched teeth, taking a sharp left, alarms blaring loudly through the corridors. “And I'm sorry, I didn’t want it to end like this.” 

“To end? Narvin-” 

“I’m taking us to the decommission room. They want to stop us but I won’t let them do it on their terms.” 

Leela stops suddenly, almost throwing him off course and throwing his insides out when she pulls him gently towards her and caresses his cheek. “Together,” She whispers in agreement, love and adoration in his eyes. “Or not at all.” 

He leans in, his nose brushing against hers and kisses her softly. She kisses him back, a hand twisting around his arm but then the sound of thundering boots brings them back to reality and he pulls away, looking at Leela. “This way.” He says, taking her hand once more and leads her down to a quiet corridor until they come to a metal steel door. He rushes to it and activates it with his sonic. 

“Hey-!” An engineer cries out in alarm. “What do you think you’re-hmph!” 

Narvin whirls to find that Leela has knocked the engineer unconscious and is already trying to lock the door. “Are you just going to stand there and gawk?” Leela asks with a raised eyebrow. 

Narvin blinks, shakes his head and he walks to a nearby computer, deleting all the information the previous engineer had put in and deadlocking the door. It makes a loud, automatic click and he nods in satisfaction. “There,” Narvin says. “Nobody will come in until after we’re gone.” 

Leela stares at the cold, metal door and she slowly turns towards him, ignoring what is behind him and grabs his hand once more.  “Now that we are here,” She says softly. “I feel slightly afraid.” 

He squeezes her hand. “You won’t be alone Leela. I won’t let you be alone.” 

“No, and I am glad to have you by my side during these last moments.” She closes her eyes, the needle Morix had jabbed in the back of her neck has come lose but the bottom part was sticks out.  “I do not have a lot of time left before my systems shut down.” 

“Then I’d better make it quick.”  

Narvin is a brilliant technician. He had helped to invent the Timeonic Fusion device despite Braxiatel warnings, which were later proven correct but he had built his own sonic screwdriver, more advanced than the Doctor’s and it could indeed do wood and he had built Leela. He has always been fascinated by building things, ever since he was a time-tot and watched his father work on building computers for the high council before he passed.  

He always wanted to build something more. 

An old automatic manufacturing robot like the ones used in car factories in twenty-first century Earth stands in the middle of the room, with a low, metal table underneath. He types some commands into the computer.  

“Lie on the table,” He says, his voice quiet. 

“Talk to me Narvin,’ She says, walking towards the table and lying down. She watches Narvin typing in a few more commands besides her before he moves over moving over to join her. “Why did they make  _you?”_  

The table was cold and uncomfortable and the automotive robot flickered into life. 

“They built me because Romana had nobody left,” Narvin replies, remembering what his creator told him all those months ago. He was a copy of one of Romana’s closest friends, meant to be a diversion in the war in case things got too much but then the real Narvin went missing as he went to try and find the real Leela.  

The robot digs into Leela’s cheek, undoing the skin he had implanted on her. She raises her hand and caresses his cheek.  Narvin raises his own hand to caress hers.  

“I love you,” Leela says firmly, the robot pulling away at her hair, the wires from her head sparking and fuzzing. “I never told you that before and I should have.” 

Another robot pierced at his legs, removing them slowly and he does not balk, does not take his eyes away from the woman he loves. Or the woman Narvin loved for robots do not love. Not as they know it. 

“I love you,” Narvin says, having never said those three words out loud before. Not in this context and they feel alien to him and he only wished he has more opportunities, more time to say them. “Leela of the Sevateem.” 

He reaches for her hand; the robot has already taken his right one and he uses his left one to grasp hers but then everything goes black. 

                                            

* * *

 

“OPEN THIS DOOR!” Morix bangs on the door and the engineer groans with a massive headache, pulling himself up. “Open this door or we will blow it down!” 

“Two nanoseconds! Deputy Coordinator Narvin knocked me unconscious-” He blurts out and presses a few buttons and the seal that Narvin placed earlier on the door unlocks and Morix bursts through the door with a furious Romana at his side. 

The engineer squeaks out in fear and pushes his glasses up his nose. “My lady-” 

“Where are they?” She demands sharply.  

“Narvin and who my lady?” He asks timidly, his eyes darting around the room but the guards are already spreading out, searching through the other doors, looking underneath tables.  

“Narvin and Leela, well, their copies for you and I both know  _that.”_  

“Of course, my lady,” The engineer nods shakily. “As I said, Narvin knocked me unconscious but when I went to the computer to let you and the guards through, I saw that Narvin activated-” 

“My lady,” One of Morix’s guards lifts up two fake hearts. “These were found near the automatic robots on the table.” 

“Oh no.” Romana lets out a loose breath and she walks up to the guards, the thought of what they have done filling her with dread.  

“It looks like they both went together,” Morix sneers, putting away his staser gun.  “Just like the originals.” 

Romana sends him a glare that could cut through glass and Morix quickly shuts up. 

“Out.” She sneers. “All of you. OUT.” 

Morix glances at his guards and gestures with his gun for them to leave the room. The engineer opens his mouth to say something but Morix drags him by the ear and slams the door behind them, which leaves the noise echoing around the room. 

Romana closes her eyes once she is alone, clutching both Narvin’s and Leela’s robotic hearts to hers. “I miss you both, terribly,” she says. Gallifrey, she even misses Braxiatel and she doesn’t even know where he was, not after his last mission with Ace.  

She carefully places both hearts in a box and grabs a hammer. “This project should never have been,” She whispers for this was another scheme Rassilon was testing for the war. “They should never have been. This has all been a huge mistake.”  

And as she brings down the hammer, both of their hearts shatter into pieces. 


End file.
